There is an expense associated to losing any employee in the time it takes for them to be replaced, the effort required to find a replacement as well as any recruitment and advertising costs on top of which there is the cost of losing knowledge and experience that is specific to the organization; Losing good employees is a problem where prevention is most definitely the best cure.

It is a fact of life that employees will leave from time to time but it is useful for an employer to understand the reasons for an employee to leave so that they can be sure that personnel are leaving for reasons that are right and not reasons that are wrong and avoidable.

Concerns of employees can be identified early by the regular use of well designed job satisfaction surveys, allowing for problems to be resolved and helping to minimize needless loss of staff. However, some problems, especially those that involve personalities, are not always brought to the surface until it is too late.

When personnel decide to change jobs it is very often due to a lack of career development and/or poor management. Both of these problems can be difficult to identify even for organizations that adopt regular 360-degree appraisals (i.e. where as part of the overall review process, employees may be asked to evaluate their managers).

While employed employees can be reluctant to criticize their managers for fear of the consequences, they can however be more candid when completing an employee exit survey.

Once an employee has decided to resign it is very unlikely that an Exit survey will prevent them from leaving, however the survey may help identify areas that if not addressed could result in more preventable resignations.

Limited Career Development

Not all employers can offer, and nor do all employees desire, a clear and long term career path. There are just as many people that find comfort and security in doing one job well as there are people that need to feel that they are continual being challenged, learning new skills and moving onwards and upwards with respect to the corporate ladder. For organizations to succeed and excel they need the high flyers as well as the steady Eddies of the world.

Where losses due to a lack of career development are occasional they may also be inevitable, but where they are frequent, then changes to the organizational structure might need to be considered to allow for greater career development of the employees.

Poor Management

Many a manager has achieved their managerial position through hard work and a deserved promotion, but a good worker does not always make a good manager and many are awarded a management position without any management training.

Managers who perform poorly can be quick to discredit the views of disgruntled staff, ‘I am glad they went it saved me getting rid of them’ and ‘they were useless anyway’ may prove to be common responses to those managers being asked if there are any problems that might be causing people to leave the organization.

It is proper and natural for senior management to support their line managers by giving them the benefit of any doubt, after all a good managers can always be slighted by poor employees. If through an Exit survey a man-management problem were to be identified early it presents a realistic chance that the problem could be properly addressed and resolved with appropriate formal training and guidance.

Records

It is not that unusual for a person to leave an employer and put in a claim for constructive dismissal at a later date. With ‘No win no fee’ legal representation this has become a real problem for even good employers. Exit surveys will at best, provide a valuable record of the employee’s reasons for leaving, and at worse, provide early warning that a possible claim might be expected.

A tribunal may not readily accept the word of an employer that when the employee left they did so without indicating any grievance.

When to conduct an exit survey

Exit surveys can with the employee’s agreement be delayed for a few months or be conducted as part of the termination procedures.

If the timing of the exit survey is delayed for a month or two it could allow for a period of reflection where the ex-employee may be less prone to emotion and more objective and if they have started a new job they may be in a position to compare their previous role with their new role.

The advantages with conducting an exit survey as part of the termination procedure is that although emotions may be running high it is probably more reflective of the employee’s state of mind and therefore closer to the reasons they have decided to leave (justified or otherwise). If delayed any comparison between the ex-employee’s old and new roles may be the result of them putting on a brave face, and if the reasons that are given require action, the delay may have prevented the problem from being resolved.

Summary

Organization that include exit surveys as part of their employee termination procedures will generally benefit in a number of ways. Having good records could prove to be very valuable later and they will also provide management with information that can help them improve an organization’s moral as well as the bottom line.

See the following survey for sample exit interview questions.

 

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